Contemporary Art and Unforgetting in Colonial Landscapes

Book excerpt: This book explores the work of artists based in the global south whose practices and methods interrogate and explore the residue of Empire. In doing so, it highlights the way that contemporary art can assist in the un-forgetting of colonial violence and oppression that has been systemically minimized. The research draws from various fields including memory studies; postcolonial and decolonial strategies of resistance; activism; theories of the global south; the intersection between colonialism and the Anthropocene, as well as practice-led research methodologies in the visual arts. Told through the author’s own perspective as an artist and examining the work of Julie Gough, Yuki Kihara, Megan Cope, Yhonnie Scarce, Lisa Reihana and Karla Dickens, the book develops a number of unique theories for configuring the relationship between art and a troubled past.